"Bolivian President Carlos Mesa offered his resignation to Congress almost 17 months after taking office, amid stepped up protests against the government's energy policies...

"It's a highly dangerous moment for Bolivia,'' Mesa said in a letter to Congress, read aloud by Cabinet Chief Jose Galindo and broadcast on CNN's Spanish network. ``These movements are leading the country to a point that is unsustainable. I can't continue to govern under these circumstances,'' the letter said.

"Mesa's resignation would throw the South American country back into a political crisis less than two years after former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was forced from office following deadly riots in opposition to his plans to export natural gas to the U.S. and Mexico."

"Evo Morales, leader of the second-largest party in Congress, the Movement Toward Socialism, is leading protests to demand a new hydrocarbon law that raises royalties for foreign companies in Bolivia such as Spain's Repsol YPF and Total SA of France. Bolivia has 28.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Latin America's second-largest reserves after Venezuela, according to BP Plc's statistical review of world energy."

Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, the former President of Bolivia:
"Our country's long-term energy needs are dwarfed by its vast supplies."

What does vast mean in Bolivia today?

""According to the Oil and Gas Journal, Bolivia's proven natural gas reserves were 24 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), as of January 2003. A study by U.S.-based consulting firm DeGolyer & MacNaughton in April 2003, however, certified Bolivia's natural gas reserves at 54.9 Tcf, giving Bolivia the second-largest reserves in South America after Venezuela. The graph to the right reflects the large increases in reserve estimates since 1997."
From USA's Energy Information Agency

Comparing Bolivia's Natural Gas reserves with Global consumption of 90 TCF of natural gas per year, giving the benefit of the doubt that reserves are "certified" indeed at 54.9 TCF, Bolivia would be able to meet humanity's Natural gas needs for 223 days. Is that a vast amount?

Peasants in Bolivia organized in September 2003 to revolt against "selling" [giving away?] their energy inheritance to the USA, where the average person consumes 40 times more natural gas, 15 times more electricity and 15 times more oil. To characterize this transfer of natural wealth as necessary for the economic well-being of their country is to completely misconstrue the inherent value of this resource in the long term as a mechanism for internal economic development. Furthermore, it could only come from ignorance of realistic global oil and natural gas reserves and prospects, or because Sanchez is deliberately ignoring these facts to support a political agenda.

""Much of Bolivia's major natural gas discoveries have come since 1998. Unfortunately, very little of these resources have been tapped due to limited markets within Bolivia. The country has a very small domestic natural gas market that is incapable of absorbing much of the country's output. Close to 50% of Bolivia's gas, the associated (wet) gas, is re-injected, flared, or vented. Forecasts for the next 20 years show that Bolivia will only be able to absorb 20% of the country's gas reserves. Potential export markets for Bolivian natural gas include Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and the United States. Of these, Brazil is Bolivia's only major export market. Bolivia also exports limited quantities to Argentina. With Bolivia sitting on so much untapped reserves with limited potential markets, there is little incentive to invest in further exploration. This could prove detrimental to the country’s long-term energy future." Emphasis by webmaster; source of this propaganda: USA's DOE
"

Jumping on the bandwagon, another author echoes this propoganda as though it were fact:

What authority does this author cite for the conclusion that Bolivia "needs" only 20% of its natural gas reserves -- as a country whose per capita consumption is a tiny fraction compared to the developed world? Is it conceivable that the USA's Department of Energy might have an agenda? Is it that Bolivians don't "need" gas because they prefer their poverty? And then someone comes up with a title like this: Bolivia lines itself up to rescue energy-starved California. Huh?!